Hawai'i inmates may shift to Mississippi

Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. — Hawai'i officials have toured a privately run prison near Tutwiler, Miss., as negotiations continue on a contract to move some inmates from Arizona and Oklahoma to Tallahatchie County in the upcoming weeks, Mississippi officials say.

Alabama has been housing inmates at the prison since last summer, but has taken them back. The move left prison operators with no choice but to consider shutting down the facility.

Hawai'i prison officials have said that they are considering various options for housing inmates whom the state sends to Mainland facilities, but that no move was imminent. A Department of Public Safety spokeswoman had no immediate comment yesterday on the status of those plans.

Steve Owen, spokesman for the Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America, said 520 inmates from Hawai'i are now being housed at a CCA-managed facility in Arizona and another 850 at a company-run facility in Oklahoma. Owen was reluctant to discuss other specifics about Hawai'i inmates moving to Mississippi.

Mississippi House Corrections Committee Chairman Bennett Malone said talks with Hawai'i officials appear to be progressing.

"I would assume they are in the later stages of negotiations," Malone said Friday.

Malone said he expects that up to 1,000 Hawai'i inmates will stay for one year, then be replaced by Mississippi prisoners.